A DECISION to have a bar at next year’s Urdd National Eisteddfod will ruin the festival’s good name, church leaders claimed.

The decision was debated at a Sunday is Special conference organised by the Union of Welsh Independent Churches in Carmarthenshire.

The 300-strong congregation supported an urgent motion put before the meeting by young members to ask the Urdd to reconsider the decision.

Urdd officials were given the go-ahead to apply for a licence for the week-long festival, in Ceredigion, by the movement’s council.

It would not be the first time alcohol has been available during the festival, but was the first time the Urdd applied for a licence of its own.

Union of Welsh Independent Churches spokesman Alun Lenny said: “Parents send their children, in the company of their teachers and others, to the Urdd Eisteddfod knowing the Maes is a safe and appropriate place for children.

“Will they be so confident to do so knowing alcohol will be available there? It is time the Urdd reconsider this matter.”

The Urdd’s decision has also been condemned by The Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

Wynford Ellis Owen, the charity’s chief executive, said: “At a time when 12 million of Britain’s people drink to dangerous levels – with the problem worse in Wales, where it is estimated that more than a quarter of Welsh young people between the ages of 11 and 15 use more alcohol than young people in any other country in Europe within the same age range – the decision is not only insane but irresponsible.

“My hope is the members will be wise enough on hearing the facts and the latest scientific evidence, to change their minds. I’m confident we can achieve this and restore the Urdd’s credibility,” he said.

Eisteddfod director Aled Sion said this year’s festival was at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff which has licensed facilities in the building.

“We had no difficulties with that. Indeed we had fewer problems with alcohol than at other Eisteddfodau,” he said.